Overheard and such

Just a catch-all post for random pics coming up.  :)

While Julia spent the night at BB's we took the chance to take the boys to a Japanese steak house.  They think those are AMAZING and Julia is scared to death of them.  :)  Marky was beyond thrilled (and I promised him we will go again on his birthday).  I wondered how Charlie would do with all the knives and fire- but he LOVED it.  He kept saying "wook at dat big fie-ya" (fire).  And he ate  EVERYTHING.  He loved the onion soup broth and ate 2 bowls of it.  He loved the salad, rice, veggies, shrimp, chicken- I'm telling you he is the best eater we ever had!  (with Marky a close second).

Overheard:

 Last night we watched Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring with Marky. He's read it several times and knows the story (and how the movie deviates from the story) backwards and fowards.

When Galadriel was giving the fellowship gifts he said, "what she really gave Aragorn was a sheath for his sword that meant that the sword pulled from it could never be broken."  I googled it- he was right.  What I couldn't get over was how thoughtful his aside comments were all during the movie. I wish I'd written them down.  At one point somebody offers to carry the ring for Frodo and Marky said, "yes, you think you can handle it. You think, 'I can keep control over this evil', but the evil will ultimately control you." At one point after Gandalph dies Boromir is sitting in despair and says there is no hope for men. Marky said, "and look- his hope stands right before him and he can't see it. Your hope is your king- Aragorn."  He later said when they were all sad Gandalph had died and wondering if they'd gone on the wrong path, "well, the path to take it not always clear so you just have to act.  You can't second-guess every decision."  I never asked him one question to illicit the answers- this was just him thinking out loud during a movie.

These comments go right along with things I've been reading.    There are timeless truths taught in fairy tales and folklore that are internalized and chewed on and you do NOT get that from reading 2 pages about "Jose and Jessie at the food festival" and then answer 10 obtuse questions about it.   This is why school is not working out for us.   It is taking the joy out of learning.  They are making straight As and having fun so we've had a good experience,but it's not the best.  The best teachers are living books.   There's the famous quote "education is not filling a bucket, it's lighting a fire".  Well, I'll just leave it at that for now.  I can see I'm getting on a roll.  :)

 More overheard:

From the kitchen:  Crash!

Daddy:  Tucker, stop throwing things!

Tucker:  It wasn't me Daddy- that was gravity.  :)

Today as we passed a church-

Tucker:  Mommy, look there is the cathedral where God blesses us!

Mommy:  Yes, you are right.  Why does God bless us?

Tucker:  Because he wants to open the gates of heaven for us with Jesus!

Marc picked Tucker up from his science class a few weeks ago and took him to work with him.  One of Marc's partners started quizzing Tucker on a world map in his office- and Tucker knew every country he pointed to.  Then he got on the computer and starting pulling up flags and Tucker got all of those.  By this time others had wandered in and there was a crowd watching the show.  Then the man said, "okay, I'm going to really get you now- tell me- which country owns Greenland?"

Tucker:  Denmark.  :)  It's owned by Denmark, but it's in North America.

Then the man said, "well, how about this?  I tell you a country and you describe the flag to me. "  And he asked probably 20 flags and Tucker described them all perfectly.  Then he said, "okay- do Rwanda"

Tucker:  Rwanda's flag is red, yellow and green with a big R on it.

The partner looked it up and Tucker was finally wrong it seemed.  Then they looked and realized Tucker described Rwanda's older flag and the new flag was adopted in 2001.  The crowd cheered and Tucker was hero for a day.  :)

I took the children to afternoon classes at the science center today- I can't wait to hear what they learned!  Then we are off to our friends' house for a New Years party.  :)  Happy New Year!

If you haven't seen this- watch it!

I get tears every time!  :)



Oh how the world needs to see more commercials like this!

New hair for a new year

Today I cut over five inches of my hair.   I asked him to cut it just below my shoulders, but it sort of ended up just above my shoulders once it dried.  I sort of freaked out, but I'm liking it more and more.  So here's to a new year with lighter hair!  (and yes, I'm sure I'll grow it right back out!)  :)

Before- (and it was even longer in the back)-

After-

Sunday Pictures

Tucker with his new bow tie and Julia with her new horsey dress she got for Christmas!  :)

One of my new favorite pictures.  :)

Our little fishergirl

Sissy has always had "the touch" when it comes to fishing.  She is staying by herself for a few nights with BB and Poppy and went fishing today and caught five crappie and two bass!  :)   Her content little personality and love for animals makes her perfectly happy to sit and wait quietly forever for a fish.  She was so looking forward to getting time on the lake.

Christmas Day 2013

Christmas Day!  They went to bed with no presents under the tree and then Voila- here they all are!  This post reminds me of how happy I am for MY Christmas present- a NEW CAMERA- this whole year of blogging has been done with  my camera phone- Boo!  The blurry pictures END HERE!  :)

 
Daddy always makes our Christmas day fire with the log from the last year's Christmas tree.  :)  Our yule log tradition.

 While we waited for breakfast BB read to the boys-

Breakfast before presents....  :)

Let's get to partying!

 A real silver tea set like Mommy's!

A new ping pong table waiting for them in the garage (in a box)-- hooray!

I put my new "egg plate" to use- I've always wanted one.  :)

Sharshee- you make it to easy to figure out who left the fridge open- :)

With another pack of Magnatiles- (that makes three) we can build ENORMOUS towers!

A wonderful, wonderful, blessed Christmas.  Hopefully BB got some less blurry pics on her camera.  And I know I will have non-blurry pictures now with my awesome camera!  Woop woop!

Check out these camera pics- Daddy and Marky playing Risk- the game Marky begged for!

Tucker's new easel-

He loves it!

NO MORE BLURRY PICTURES!!!!  Mommy is soooo happy!!!!  Merry Christmas to all!